In the late 16th Century, England was a growing naval power, defeating the Spanish Armada in 1588. As Spain's influence declined, France became the leading power on the European continent and chief threat to England. To maintain and expand their navy, England would need a source of wealth that rivaled that which Spain had extracted from their American colonies. New World colonies became a vital element in the balance of power in Europe. What was going on in Europe would play a significant role in European settlement patterns in North America.

Changes in agriculture including better plows and new crops introduced to Europe from the Americas led to population growth. At the same time, in England, enclosure of fields to raise more and more sheep for the woolen industry forced a significant portion of the rural population off the land and into the cities. City populations grew faster than the urban infrastructure, and often these migrants lived in poverty and squalor. Jobless, many found themselves condemned to debtors prisons. These conditions of overpopulation also became a force behind England's quest for an overseas colony.

Expanding agriculture, fledgling industries, a growing population, an island nation's need for a large merchant fleet and naval vessels to protect it--all contributed to deforestation of the English countryside at a time when wood was the main source of fuel and shipbuilding materials. Shipbuilding required oak for hulls and decks, tall pines for masts, and pitch products (=naval stores) for waterproofing. At first England turned to the Baltic Sea area of western Europe (e.g., modern Poland, Lithuania, etc.) for their wood supply, but the Baltic--like the Mediterranean--has a constricted entrance easily blockaded during the frequent European wars. So the Baltic could not provide a reliable source, especially during times of special need, i.e., wartime.

English rulers began to believe that "planting" a colony in America would solve many of their problems. A colony could:

• Produce raw materials needed in England (initially these would be forest products.)
• Provide an outlet for surplus population
• Provide the unemployed useful jobs producing products needed in England
• Create a market for English manufactures

Furthermore, if located at the right latitude, colonists could produce those products that England had to purchase from Mediterranean countries with whom were not infrequently at war. The most important of these commodities were wine, silk, and glass. But other desired agriculture products, such as indigo, ginger, and oranges, also came from the Mediterranean.

For several reasons, the English focused their attention on the Chesapeake Bay area as the best site for a "planting." Its latitude was comparable to that of the Mediterranean, therefore to their minds it should have a similarly delightful climate and be able to produce similar crops and manufactured materials (silk, glass). Fisherman had brought back reports of a heavily forested land in which the need for timber and naval stores could be satisfied. And the Chesapeake area, though claimed by Spain, beyond the effective control of the Spanish colonial government centered in Havana, Cuba.

The first English attempts at colonization

How to undertake the expensive and risky endeavor of "planting" a colony separated from the mother country by a vast ocean was another question. Under Queen Elizabeth I, the Crown refused to supply the necessary capital so the first attempts were private ventures, sanctioned by the Queen. In 1578, Elizabeth granted Sir Humphrey Gilbert the rights to plant a colony in America, but he drowned in a storm during his second attempt. His half-brother, Sir Walter Raleigh, then received permission to organize several expeditions. The first reached the coast of North Carolina in 1584 and named the new and charted land Virginia, in honor of their virgin queen. No attempt at settlement was made and the expedition returned to England.

In 1587, the next expedition, under the command of John White, sent women and children to make their permanent homes in "Virginia." This was the famous "Lost Colony." Although instructed to go to the Chesapeake Bay, the ship's captain left the party off on Roanoke Island in Albemarle Sound and removed himself to the more lucrative activity of pirating Spanish treasure ships. War broke out in Europe (the Spanish Armada incident mentioned above) in 1588 and prevented supply ships from returning to Roanoke. When finally an English ship did go to the site of the colony, everyone had vanished. Their fate is still unknown.

The Virginia Company and Jamestown

Under James I, a new strategy was tried in which a stock company made up a number of investors/speculators undertook the task of "planting" a colony as a commercial endeavor. King James issued the First Charter of the Virginia Company in 1606, giving them the right to establish a planting between 34° and 45° N, within 100 miles of the shoreline. The stated purposes of the undertaking wee to

1. realize a high return on the investment
2. create a market for English manufactured goods
3. produce raw materials for English industry
4. search for gold and silver
5. spread Christianity to the natives
6. find a sea route to Asia
7. search for the lost colony
8. produce commodities to replace those from European trade.

The first group of Virginia Company adventurers—108 men and boys—set sail from England in three small ships on December 20, 1606. They were becalmed off the coast for 6 weeks, before being able to make their way to the Canary Islands for fresh water and a new supply of food. From the Canaries they caught the trade winds to the West Indies, as the islands of the Caribbean were named in order to distinguish them from the spice islands of Indonesia, thereafter known as the East Indies. From the West Indies, the ships caught the Gulf Stream and sail north to the Chesapeake Bay, making their first landing in Virginia at Cape Henry on April 26, 1607.

The small company of colonists had specific instructions for selecting a site for a permanent base camp. This site was to be

• On a navigable river that permitted sea going vessels to reach the them directly
• Inland for protection from Atlantic storms and any Spanish defending their claim to the area
• On high ground, above the disease-causing bad air of swampy ground
• Unoccupied by native peoples.

On May 13, they selected a site 40 miles upstream on the river they named for their king, the James. The site of Jamestown was on a navigable river, inland, and on what they may have believed was unoccupied territory (The island was actually used by the Paspahegh, one of the Powhatan tribes.) . However, it was not on high ground since all the best sites were occupied by Algonkian villages and fields. Low and swampy, at high tide it became an island. Almost immediately, the men fell ill.

The heavy soils of the floodplain and the hot, humid summers did not suit the staple crop of Europe, wheat. Settlers had to change their diet to include "Indian corn" (maize) instead, but they were not particularly interested in growing it themselves. The Jamestown people were not farmers; they had hoped to find instant wealth in the form of gold or silver and return home to become landed gentry.

At first the natives, who probably marveled at how anyone could starve in their land of plenty, helped the colonists out and brought them corn; but when they later became reluctant to do this, the Englishmen turned to stealing stored maize from their native neighbors, creating ill-will among the native population than out-numbered and surrounded them.

Illnesses were most likely related to environmental conditions at Jamestown, although not the bad air that settlers (with no knowledge of microorganisms) suspected, but bad water. The James is both brackish and tidal at Jamestown. Drinking water could not be obtained directly from the river especially in summer when high temperatures and reduced runoff brought salts in the water to their highest level. Even shallow wells on the islands were easily contaminated with salty groundwater. Latrines would have been over the river, logically perhaps, to have wastes carried away by the river. But the tide only carried it back and contaminated wells. Typhus, dysentery, and cholera are water-borne diseases typical of poor sanitation conditions. Sickness would continue to decimate the English population until settlement spread well beyond Jamestown island.

The Virginia Company was reorganized in 1609 in part to deal with the high mortality problem. A Second Charter was issued, which redefined the borders of the colony. The Virginia Company was given rights to "plant" in an area stretching 200 miles north and 200 miles south of Point Comfort and west/northwest as far as British control extended. In latitude, the north-south limits coincide with approximately 41° N and 34° N respectively. Forty-one degrees is more or less the latitude of New York City today. This northern boundary allowed a different branch of the Virginia Company, the Virginia Company of Plymouth, to settle in the more northerly part of British America. They (the pilgrims of Thanksgiving lore) established Plimouth Plantation in 1620. Virginia was under the auspices of the Virginia Company of London.